Spirits and Flames
by BitterSweetTeller
Summary: With Surtur coming to bring an end to the Nine Realms, will the Avengers be able to help the Asgardians stop him? A sequel and follow up to The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill. Rated K Plus for suggestive content and action.
1. Act I: Shadows of Flames

Spirits And Flames: A Avengers Fanfiction Story

Act I:

Side Notes: If you haven't seen the whole Avengers(Earth's Mightiest Heroes) show, please do before reading this oneshot fanfiction. It'll make a lot more sense this way…since this is a ending for the unfinished Surtur plotline in the episode The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill and could very well be a ending for the whole series(especially because it involves some characters from the last episode Avengers Assemble and takes place after that episode).

But even if you don't want to watch all the episodes from the Avengers(Earth's Mightiest Heroes) show(but especially The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill and Avengers Assemble), you can look up things from any of the episodes on The Avengers(Earth's Mightiest Heroes) Wiki.

In Las Vegas, Nevada…

There is a very light green skyscraper of a tower called the Space Needle, looking over bright light tube signs and glass towers galore. The last time this tower was involved with the Avengers' battles, it had the Gamma monster obsessed Leader using it as a base of operations to try to turn Earth into a Gamma World.

Now back to a fully operational hotel for the rich and slightly rich, the outer space themed Space Needle internally modeled after old S.H.I.E.L.D. control rooms is having some interesting guests.

In a high level hotel suite is a somewhat dark viewscreen all across the walls showing the Earth around the Sun, and four white star shaped beds. Baron Zemo is twirling his green energy long sword in one hand, sitting on one of the beds. He is watched sharply by Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and the New Ant-Man. Just outside the room's dark blue door is Mockingbird on guard, slightly noticeably nervous with her extendable gray bo staff.

Baron Zemo laughs, "don't you have something better to do than wait for the inevitable?" Luke Cage angrily grabs him by the neck, but pauses.

Luke Cage pushes back, "if Fury didn't want you protected, you'd already be on your own H.Y.D.R.A. experiment table! Don't forget that." He drops him hard on the floor, but Baron Zemo just slightly coughs with his ageless body as he gets up.

With a slight chuckle joined by the New Ant-Man, Iron Fist comments, "and I thought I was the advice whisperer."

Baron Zemo laughs darkly, "I'm never one to forget…a face."

Harsh echoes sound off in Baron Zemo and his watchers, making them clutch their heads in mental pain. They're saying, "Nick Fury's great champions. Laugh. You aren't even worth serving me!"

New Ant-Man mutters, "so…loud!"

Iron Fist mutters to himself, "focus!" Struggling to get a sense of what's going on, he a minute too late realizes what's coming. Fire Demons after Fire Demons come up through exploding red hot spots in the suite floor. The electricity goes down. The room begins to burn in Fire Demon flames, launched from their arms or otherwise.

Iron Fist with a glowing light red fist battle cry punches a Fire Demon to pieces, giving him the chance to run up to and take the nearby fire extinguisher. Using it as a hurled temporary shield against a Fire Demon fireball, lots of special white foam vaporizes many Fire Demons.

The New Ant-Man sighs, "what I wouldn't give for a chance to have ants right now." Realizing he can't do much else here, he jumps for a ceiling light off of a bed and shrinks at the last second to get to some ceiling light bolts.

In the midst of Iron Fist's foam attack, Luke Cage shouts to Surtur, "you think we ain't taking you down?! You ain't seen nothing yet!" He with his super physicality punches out two Fire Demons with one fist, then picks one of them up to hurl into several more that explode on impact. The Fire Demons though just keep coming.

Baron Zemo shouts, "Surtur: Stop dancing your little demons around me and hit me already! I'm not afraid of you." He slashes his energy sword into many Fire Demons, before side jumping out of the way of falling ceiling lights that stun many more Fire Demons. Baron Zemo easily destroys them all before they can react. On the good side to all of this, the suite is internally flameproof except for the viewscreen.

At the same time, just outside…

Mockingbird urges, "here little demon de...mon. Slight chuckle." A dark red clothed Enchantress with bright red flames as her very long hair appears in bright red light. Mockingbird charges at the Surtur version of Enchantress, spinning her bo staff into her apparently still active fire shield seconds before jump kicking her upper body against the floor by surprise.

Enchantress coughs a little, slightly stunned. Appearing next to her though is a dark red flame version of Wonder Man. He rams Mockingbird through the suite's door by surprise, with the wind aftereffect from the open center of a highly controlled double I shaped fire blast.

The Surtur version of Wonder Man slightly laughs, "Ragnarok will come forth tonight…Zemo." Mockingbird falls unconscious at the side of one of the beds, with the flaming door's wood dust raining down on the already aflame floor. The New Ant-Man comes down in normal size, only to be blasted unconscious by a few Fire Demons. From all the floor's hardship, it collapses under the heroes' combined weight.

Surtur's voice echoes in his mind controlled commanders, "then bring him to me, my servers!" Surtur commander Wonder Man swiftly blasts the wall edges around the suite away from the outside like a cosmic eraser, having the rest of the suite slam down the conscious heroes into unconsciousness before they can react. Surtur commander Enchantress simultaneously makes a portal around temporarily unconscious Baron Zemo, taking him to Surtur's realm to awaken as a commander of his Fire Demons.

An hour or so later, in Avengers Mansion…

Things are quiet: Possibly too quiet. The mainly brown break room has Hawkeye, Vision, Wasp, and Miss Marvel playing a strategic card game on the matching round table with different colored chips. Vision reflects, "I am…accessing why you like this game. I calculate that announcing my status 50 percent less often will increase my probability of success in battle."

Most of them can't help but chuckle. Miss Marvel adds slightly annoyed, "maybe not just in battle, Vision. Slight chuckle. But to fully get over betraying someone you cared about, even if he was Ultron…is hard."

Hawkeye reflects, "or on the other side of a…H.Y.D.R.A. shoe." He had just seen Iron Man, Thor, and Black Widow coming down to the nearby mainly white main hall of Avengers Mansion. Captain America and Black Panther are coming minutes behind them. Vision, Miss Marvel, and Wasp get up with Hawkeye.

Pepper is in one of the lower levels, calling the local police for a city wide evacuation as Black Widow advised before heading for a back door.

Wasp wonders, "so what do we get to blast this time?"

Black Widow slightly sighs, "Fury has the coordinates on Iron Man's helmet. We…!" The whole hall is blasted with Surtur flames, with only Captain America's main shield and Vision's super thickness protecting the team from being blasted themselves. Even Iron Man's light blue repulsor generated shield wasn't enough for the blast as the shield overloaded. He had just fly tumbled for cover himself. Thor starts making several portals at once with his Asgardian hammer Mjolnir.

Captain America shouts, "hurry! We'll cover you."

Vision adds, "I calculate it will only work for five minutes."

Thor urges, "you are mighty warriors: You shall do well." Several of the Avengers head into the portals, including Thor.

Iron Man shouts back, "no, Cap! Zemo is one of Surtur's now." As Hawkeye heads for a portal, he notices who has blasted the entire hall away. Surprisingly, a Hulk in dark red trousers with flaming short hair is waiting for them outside. He is being powered up by Fire Demons firing themselves into him, with Surtur's fire manipulation and his rising anger powered strength. With this power, Surtur commander Hulk is laser cannon level blasting the mansion's ground levels to ashes.

Hawkeye suggests somewhat sarcastically, "if anyone knows how to be betrayed, it's me. Go!" He stays with Black Widow and Iron Man. Thanks to Mockingbird secretly putting a brainwave tracer on Baron Zemo that also ends up being locked on the rest of Surtur's commanders' locations, the rest of the central Avengers strategically head off to the rest of the Nine Realms. That is, aside from the realm of Dwarves burn carved on a Surtur stone and Surtur's own realm.

In Asgard…

Looking out at his mostly gold and white kingdom of wonders from his throne room, Odin sighs hard to himself, "I fear that this new Ragnarok shall be worse than any Loki could have summoned. Come what may, this battle shall be honorable…Thor of the Avengers."


	2. Act II: The Dark Side of Many Moons

Spirits And Flames: A Avengers Fanfiction Story

Act II:

Meanwhile, in the Trolls and Ogres realm of Vanaheim…

Gray mountain ranges surround a winding upward rocky path, taken on by the Warriors Three and Captain America. At the top of this mountain that the path travels up to is the newest Surtur commander Baron Zemo. With a set of flaming black rimmed and bright red energy swords, he is firing self guided missile like fireballs down below through Surtur fire manipulation like skipping stones across water.

Warriors Three leader Fandral points out, "I know any fighter with Thor shall have victory, but we shan't last long this way!" Fire Demons are coming ten by ten down the mountainside slope like flaming boulders, with half of them pausing rolling to stand up and fire fire at Captain America and his Asgardian allies.

The Warriors Three and Captain America seem to be doing very well against the Fire Demons with Captain America's main shield and Asgardian swords. But, Surtur commander Baron Zemo himself is blasting the rock slope in front of Captain America's team's feet to make it even harder for them to get to Baron Zemo without exhausting themselves.

Within several minutes of his team taking down then exploding Fire Demons, Captain America thinks out loud, "it didn't seem like we had much of a choice…sigh…but I guess even I have to fight dirty sometimes." Captain America hurls his shield into one of the Fire Demons close to the edge of the rock spiral, bouncing it off the mountain.

As the Vibranium shield bounces off the rock wall, he jump flips in front of its path to midair kick the flipping over itself shield hard into the air.

Surtur commander Baron Zemo laughs, "what does this mortal…?" From this surprised Surtur commander's side, the shield hits his head hard against the mountaintop before he can launch more fireballs.

Holgun figures in respect, "comes with the territory."

Captain America slightly nods before pointing out, "now!" With a few minutes to spare, Captain America's team run up the rock slope fast enough to mostly let the Fire Demons around them blast each other.

Baron Zemo slightly laughs to himself before getting back on his feet, "almost thought he wouldn't make it."

Meanwhile, near a certain mansion in the mortal realm of Midgard…

On the good side of things, New York City is being evacuated by police to underground emergency shelters. On the bad side, Surtur commander Hulk has already destroyed the Avengers Mansion and the base of a nearby apartment building through Surtur's efforts to destroy the nearby Avengers. Iron Man mutters over comlink, "Hawkeye! If a Uni-beam can't even make a dent…" He and Black Widow are flying and grapple hooking their way around the nearest streetlights to distract Surtur commander Hulk.

Simultaneously, Hawkeye with trick arrows ready is using his Sky Cycle to speed up the falling apartment building. He insists over comlink, "if this doesn't work, we're french fries anyway!"

Black Widow sighs over comlink, "all jesting aside, he has a point." She and Iron Man fire stun blasters and missiles at Hulk, but to no effect. They dodge several of Surtur commander Hulk's now apartment floor sized fireballs, which turn entire street sections into smoke.

Seeing now uncovered sewer pipes where road pavement was, Iron Man starts to consider in pause, "maybe…"

Unfortunately, Iron Man is caught off guard by Surtur commander Hulk's own angrily superpowered fist. He crashes against one of the dented pipes, coughing hard and clutching his battlesuit's then very much smashed chest plating. Iron Man's shielding doesn't even come back up.

All he can gasp in his coughing is Pepper's name, remembering the nights they spent together for many nights in the Avengers Mansion and his own mind possession episode with the Purple Man that reminded him how much the world still needs the Avengers to help protect it. Black Widow in increased inner fear runs for Hulk, not having a clear enough shot for the sewer pipes without destroying Iron Man in the process.

In the midst of Iron Man's fall, several Fire Demons appear from the flames spreading up the slamming down apartment building. Glass shatters and bricks break. The just appearing Fire Demons come to keep the Hulk powering up. Hawkeye mutters, "oh no, you don't!" He fires a arrow from behind him, releasing a big wind gust from its center as it explodes.

Several Fire Demons get caught in the cold front, freezing to pieces off the side of the building. Hawkeye quickly fires two electromagnet arrows in front of him in one shot, destroying the last Fire Demons of recent with a high speed trail of metal building shard remains. That is, before his Sky Cycle gets blasted in their flames.

Hawkeye cries out Hulk's name as he high jumps off of his exploding Sky Cycle, seconds before being knocked fast off the building by the explosion's wind impact. Hulk hears Hawkeye's cry, pausing in confusion and mental pain. His back is to a trying hard to stay awake Iron Man.

Black Widow briefly pauses on her way to Iron Man, realizing with a bittersweet chuckle what Hawkeye had in mind all along.

Within Hulk's mind, during the physical pauses…

Hulk has scientist Bruce Banner's part of him getting stronger from within. Bruce Banner starts encouraging the Hulk, "you don't have to be a monster: No matter what Surtur is showing you!"

Memories of the Hulk's first battle with Absorbing Man and fighters led by fighter Ross resurface, but so do memories of himself helping to save New York City from Graviton in the midst of the Breakout that ended up being the start for the Avengers' world saving adventures. Surtur's voice echoes to Hulk, "I can only show you the inevitable."

Meanwhile, in the Frost Giant realm of Jotunheim…

Miles and miles of melting snow, ice, and fading cold are everywhere. Jotunheim itself is melting like summer is coming upon it. Thor and Beta Ray Bill had recently tried to offer putting aside differences with Ymir and the other frost giants to have a better chance of stopping Enchantress, only to be punched away in the frost giants' cold anger.

Thor and his Korbonite spirit brother get up from a melting snow puddle, with many frost giants on their right running scared past and taking their ice spiked staffs with them. Thor sighs hard, "the frost giants have their own battle, but without honor."

High above Thor and Beta Ray Bill as a brother of his in spirit is Surtur commander Enchantress, summoning giant Sutur commander level demon versions of familiar faces in waves without pause. These demons are demon copies of the Red Hulk and of a pure Arc Reactor energy version of Iron Man, blasting and punching everything around them into water vapor in intense energy characteristic of the Asgardian metal Uru at superhot levels.

Ymir with most of the frost giants are continuing to fight Surtur commander demons. Unfortunately, the frost giants are being melted into puddles faster than the demons are being smashed with Loki magic enhanced frost giant staffs. The two Asgardian level spirit brother heroes take to the skies, with their Asgardian hammers Mjolnir and Stormbreaker.

Beginning to fully realize what Surtur is doing to all of Jotunheim's winter like land, Beta Ray Bill shouts in heightened worry, "for Korbin!" Deep down in a ice cave below the melting ice, the special Korbonite ship the Skuttlebutt rests between two cave floor ice spikes.

Thor shouts, "for Asgard!" He and his Asgardian level hero teammate both call forth lightning blasts upon Surtur commander Enchantress.

Surtur through her laughs, "no Asgardian shall stop Ragnarok: No matter how it is written." Apparently because of anticipating the attack, Surtur drained the lightning blasts' energy from the Enchantress' still possessed body to catch Thor and Beta Ray Bill off guard instead.

They're both blasted from behind by two flying Surtur commander Iron Man energy demons, sending them for a mountainside turning into a giant steaming hot waterfall.

Meanwhile, at the rainbow Bifrost Bridge in Asgard…

Along the cloud edge between the gold edged grayish black gateway to Asgard and the Bifrost Bridge, Odin with Asgardian fighters Balder and Heimdall are fighting Surtur himself. With the dark orange Twilight Sword in one hand, the slightly taller Surtur in humanoid form is using its fire summoning power to make it have two side flame energy blades orbiting the original flame energy blade. The Twilight Sword, now at its highest power, is easily deflecting Odin's fighting force's efforts to destroy him.

Even Odin's Odin Force magic would be deflected back at him with the actively used Twilight Sword, which is the only reason why a fiercely fighting Odin is only using his signature grayish black and golden staff against Surtur. Much to Balder's greatly increasing unease, his skills with an Asgardian sword aren't helping much despite still not being hit.

Heimdall with a battle cry comes at Surtur with the starting to spin flat side of his gold rimmed dark brown battle axe, only to have Surtur with his free claw tipped hand punch Heimdall hard off the cloud edge. Heimdall's battle axe falls onto the cloud edge.

Odin shouts, seconds too late to stop his fall, "no!" Thankfully though, Heimdall grabs the edge of the Bifrost Bridge to keep himself from being lost forever between realms.

Balder battle cries in the name of Asgard as he strikes at Surtur with swifter blows, only to seconds realize it isn't swift enough to get past the Twilight Sword's multiple magical blades. Odin though uses this opportunity of distraction to kick Surtur from the side, making Surtur crash through the gateway's walls.

By this time, Heimdall has pulled himself onto the Bifrost Bridge with a slight sigh of relief and a few deep breaths. Surtur is dazed by Odin's surprise kick, but beginning to get back to his feet in growing anger at Odin in a matter of minutes.

Balder is about to charge at Surtur, but Odin quickly gets in front of him, "nay, Balder! If we get close enough for me to touch Yggdrasil, I shall generate enough Odin Force to end Ragnarok." Balder slightly nods in slightly confused understanding, following Odin swiftly for his Asgardian throne room.

Meanwhile, in the Souls realm of Niffleheim…

In the midst of dark green light and floating dark green crystals reflective of souls, grayish green dressed Hela is standing on her rock pedestal stand to keep an eye on her realm. Her black hood like mask covering everything but the lower half of her face has four branch like horns sticking out of the sides. Her bat like black rimmed Loki made cloak is over her shoulders, like wings always ready to take off.

Here with Wasp is medium blond haired Valkyrie with Asgardian braids over her shoulders and mostly silver Valkyrie battle wear, both standing at the ready for battle. Wasp wonders worried, "where is Hank?!"

Hela slightly sighs, "his tortured soul is hard to sense, but…" Then a dark red and bright red mosquito themed Yellowjacket appears in normal size from behind her, kicking her off her pedestal. Hela's cloak that Yellowjacket while shrunk loosened fell off onto the rock pedestal. Hela is coughing hard against the rock ground of Niffleheim, the visible part of her face very aged and physically weak from her magically cursed cloak.

Wasp and Valkyrie angrily charge at Surtur commander Yellowjacket, who had recently landed on the rock pedestal. Wasp tries to say, "Hank, I know you have…!" In carefully timed seconds, Surtur commander Yellowjacket enlarges to the size of a frost giant and punches both of them against the ground.

Wasp and Valkyrie cough hard, much to Surtur's laughter through a possessed Yellowjacket. Surtur with his laughter cruelly says, "you never really knew him before I came…and now the Hank you knew is gone." A teary eyed Wasp struggles to get back up, seeing Surtur commander Yellowjacket with his altered yellow tipped gray ray gun teleport unwilling soul after unwilling soul to Surtur.

Within the mind of the first Ant-Man who became Yellowjacket, in the midst of souls being stolen by Surtur to keep his Fire Demons going…

Yellowjacket is reexperiencing the painful memory of the explosion in his Grayburn College lab. Interestingly, Surtur's flames are around the device Yellowjacket was working on seconds before the explosion. Then he found himself trapped in a bright blue chamber in his own Microverse, with Hulk and Baron Zemo in neighboring chambers. Yellowjacket struggles to break free without his ray gun by trying to enlarge, only to realize it's not working here.

Then realizing Wasp seems to be right behind him, he turns to her. Before he can say anything, Hela's mind projection of a teary eyed Wasp reveals to him, "I may've had trouble coming to grips with my feelings, but so do you: Ultron, the Microverse… Because of Surtur making you what you are now, you think it's all for nothing!"

Meanwhile, in the Dark Elves realm of Swartalfheim…

In a grayish green haunted woods haunted with darkness, the only light is from trails of fire made just by Surtur commander Wonder Man's feet touching the ground. From fire trails come wave after wave of Fire Demons, blasting the becoming outnumbered dark shadowy souls of Dark Elves and their dark realm in walls worth of highly destructive flames.

Long before Hela became in charge of Niffleheim, these dark souls have become shadow beings too dark to be overseen by Hela or even Surtur from their destruction at the hands of the frost giants. And so they have been cursed to stay in the remains of their realm by Odin himself.

But despite all of this, they're now being defended by blasts and punches from Miss Marvel, Sif, and Eitri in the dark gray Iron Man like Uru made battlesuit he kept from helping overthrow Loki from Asgard's throne. The Dark Elves, too busy defending themselves, ignore Miss Marvel's team while blasting many Fire Demons to pieces.

Miss Marvel sighs hard in frustration, "they just keep coming!" Surtur commander Wonder Man keeps using his fire manipulation to turn lots of exploding Fire Demons back into very much intact Fire Demons.

Sif comments, "then maybe we need to destroy their source." She blocks several Fire Demon blasts with her shield, seconds before swinging it into some Fire Demons from behind her.

Miss Marvel slightly chuckles, "sounds like a plan." She flies for Surtur commander Wonder Man, who blasts her hard with a focused wind gust surrounded fireball. Miss Marvel struggles to absorb it for some minutes against Surtur commander Wonder Man.

Surtur through him mutters harshly, "you may have cosmic powers from Captain Marvel…but I am the only cosmic power that matters!"

While Surtur commander Wonder Man is ending up being distracted by fighting Miss Marvel, Sif and Eitri in Asgard's name are now too busy blasting as many officially being destroyed Fire Demons as they can.

Unlike most battles, Sif internally can't help but worry how Thor and the rest of their forces are doing against Surtur's highly powerful odds. Deep inside for quite some time, she has missed being together with Thor ever since the mortal woman Jane Foster came into his life.

Memories of Thor returning to Asgard to save Asgardians from Loki and the frost giants come back to her in flashes, along with Thor's difficult efforts to get Asgardians including herself to see honor in mortals on Midgard. Out of a deep respect for Thor that has resurfaced since Surtur's attack on the Korbonites, she worries because of not being sure if she will ever regain that kind of respect from Thor or get that kind of respect from mortals that are just as worthy to care about. And now Sif is taking out that growing uncertainty on the Fire Demons.

Miss Marvel cries out in overwhelmingly absorbed firepower from Surtur. She crashes down, shaking hard on the pale green ground. Miss Marvel remembers pieces of her personal fights with Captain Marvel's Kree related decisions, her fights with the Kree, and Captain Marvel in recent days taking over the Kree Empire for the better. But all she can think of in her dangerous shaking is questioning what Captain Marvel would do to survive against the cosmic level odds she faces now.

Meanwhile, in the Light Elves realm of Alfheim…

Dark red Ultron troops in a flying charge are firing bright red Arc Reactor energy blasts, upon the burning forests across the land. Light Elf archers are using fiery branches from the debris with their orange golden bows like they're explosive Asgardian arrows. Plenty of incoming Ultrons are destroyed. But, even this change in plans isn't holding off the Surtur commander Ultrons well as they easily replace themselves with summoned copies. Through Yellowjacket being turned into a Surtur commander, Ultron's conscious thoughts weren't as hard for Surtur to possess.

Medium pale blond haired light elf archer Faradei with Asgardian braids on his shoulders and light elf battle wear encourages his fellow light elves, "keep firing! We shall only keep this up for a little longer." Plenty of light elf archers' positions on treetops are blasted in flames. One of the blasts knocks Faradei against a bush, otherwise all right as he gets back up to get back to firing flaming branches.

Surtur's voice echoes through the Surtur commander Ultron troops, "there is no more mortal or Asgardian hope: Only everlasting flames."

While the light elves are putting up their fight, Black Panther is running up and flipping off of falling tree after falling tree in his very advanced Wakanda battle gear. He in a matter of minutes gets to a high tree, which is about to be blasted by the Surtur commander Ultrons. With a deep breath, Black Panther jump flips himself high into the air.

He calls out, "now, Vision!" Vision swiftly phases through the flames to provide his android back as a platform for Black Panther, flying him out of the way of the exploding big tree. Black Panther quickly gets out a clear blue diamond from a underground Wakanda mine, holding it with careful timing and positioning in front of Vision's forehead laser.

Vision's laser blasts Surtur commander Ultrons all around him and Black Panther, overloading all the Surtur commander Ultrons over Faradei and his light elf fighter team in minutes. Vision reports, "Ultron destruction at twenty percent. We are still fully…functioning."

He and Black Panther are just seeing Surtur's Ultron network thinning out their forces over Alfheim's forests to try to keep their forces multiplying, much to the heightened worries of Black Panther and Faradei's forces.

Several Surtur commander Ultrons are fly charging for Black Panther and Vision. The lead Ultron of their upcoming group attack darkly reveals, "do not express human pity for our network, Vision: We and Surtur will restore peace and order for all worlds."


	3. Act III: Falling Stars and Rising Stars

Spirits And Flames: A Avengers Fanfiction Story

Act III:

In the haunted woods of Swartalfheim…

With a suddenly worried Surtur through a possessed Wonder Man about to make sure Miss Marvel is destroyed, he gasps, "impossible!"

Miss Marvel mutters, "tell that to the Supreme Intelligence!" She amazingly from the ground blasts Surtur commander Wonder Man with his own Surtur soul flames. Miss Marvel is glowing in energy flames, having absorbed energy being Wonder Man's Surtur enhanced energy blasts along with a significant amount of his Surtur enhanced powers.

Surtur commander Wonder Man crashes into a leafless tree, the tree exploding from the impact of his Surtur enhanced body. From the forces of his own blasts, he coughs hard as his energy self starts fading in and out in destabilization. The Fire Demons are themselves noticeably fading from Swartalfheim, thanks to Sif and Eitri greatly evening things up for the Dark Elves in battle.

But as Miss Marvel in rising anger fly charges for Wonder Man, he finds Surtur's thoughts within him to start fading in and out.

He remembers how Iron Man's greatly discouraging behavior and A.I.M. turned him from a mortal into Wonder Man, and that the only thing keeping him physically existent has been the double edged magic from magically powerful villains. Then ironically a particular conversation with Black Panther in this same realm comes flashing back to him, realizing that his Surtur enhanced powers can be double edged too.

After all these memory flashes in the face of his own destruction, Wonder Man closes his eyes in a deep sigh, "goodbye." Miss Marvel pauses in greatly confused and mixed feelings.

In those seconds, Wonder Man turns himself into a almost blindingly glowing purple being that vanishes from sight. Only being able to control and create Surtur flames through the energy she absorbed, Miss Marvel has no means to follow Wonder Man. With the Fire Demons mostly gone, Sif and Eitri notice in great unease Miss Marvel's own great unease.

Meanwhile, in the usually timeless winter realm of Jotunheim…

Thor and Beta Ray Bill barely come back around, away from the waterfall they were almost swept away in.

Down below, most of the frost giants are deep swimming in a Jotunheim melting into a quickly getting hotter water world. They're heading hurriedly for air pockets in the deep caves below what used to be ground. Surtur commander demon Red Hulks with Surtur commander demon Iron Mans merging with them are fly blasting more frost giants into water. Ymir is turned into water himself, crying out in incomprehensible anger as he was about to hurl his own ice spiked staff at the Surtur commander demon that blasted him.

At the same time, the pair of Surtur commander Iron Man energy demons blast at Thor and his spirit brother again, only to miss while being washed away by the mountainside turning into a tidal wave. Surtur commander Enchantress hovers higher over the water world facing vaporization, avoiding the direct aftereffects of Surtur's own destruction here. Interestingly, Thor and Beta Ray Bill are nowhere to be seen.

Surtur through Enchantress slightly laughs, "only trying to change…Ragnarok." Surtur commander Enchantress then realizes too late what Thor and Beta Ray Bill have in mind.

Using both of their Asgardian hammers to teleport from another realm and back in seconds, they bring the Skuttlebutt's reawakened AI to the skies. The might of the battleship Skuttlebutt's energy blasts combined with Thor and Beta Ray Bill's hammer summoned lightning blasts overwhelm a crying out Enchantress.

She falls unconscious into Jotunheim's water world with a great splash, her Surtur commander demons disappearing with her magic no longer giving them existence. Without Surtur's power able to be channeled through Enchantress anymore, Jotunheim's waters are cooling off with quickly returning frosty cold wind gusts.

Beta Ray Bill sighs with relief, "the only noble thing we could do."

Thor slightly sighs in mixed feelings, "I…suppose." His thoughts are on what is left of this realm, and what that could mean for the other realms.

Meanwhile, in Yellowjacket's mind…

Yellowjacket shouts back, "you think I haven't hoped for better results?! Sigh. Janet, I have done everything I could to bring world peace: It's the world powers that don't care to have it. Not even Ultron! So you tell me: When have I ever done any lasting good anyway?"

Hela's projection of Wasp sighs hard with a hand on his, "Hank, as Ant-Man, you already have."

Yellowjacket remembers being in the Avengers as the first Ant-Man, stopping supervillains from taking over the world or causing more local damage that may have never been stopped if it wasn't for his help. Yellowjacket sighs with closed eyes, "I'm sorry." The Microverse in his mind disappears in nearly blinding yellow light.

In those several physical minutes, on the rock stand of Niffleheim…

With giant sized Surtur commander Yellowjacket teleporting souls by the hundreds to Surtur, he begins to slightly hesitate as a result of his mind battle within himself. Wasp and Valkyrie get up, with Hela physically shivering and still on her side.

Wasp shrinks down to fly charge at Surtur commander Yellowjacket's giant head, blasting away. Valkyrie slashes her Asgardian sword at Surtur commander Yellowjacket, but he summons a saved up large fire blast from his body to send her crashing into one of the floating soul crystals. Valkyrie ends up unconscious from the surprise attack, against Niffleheim's grounds.

Wasp suddenly becomes giant sized herself, about to kick Yellowjacket. Clinging onto her last piece of hope for Yellowjacket, she urges, "don't make me…!" At the same time, Yellowjacket almost fires his altered ray gun at Wasp. In seconds of sadness though, he drops it. Wasp starts shrinking back to normal size with a mixed sigh of relief, saving herself from internally overloading.

While Yellowjacket shrinks back to his normal size, he reflects, "Janet…sigh…I'm sorry." Using the last of his Surtur powers, he teleports himself away in a burst of Surtur flames.

Meanwhile, in Hulk's mind…

Hulk finds himself in a very large lake, with his head sticking out of the water as he runs on the lake's bottom. Yellow laser fast fire of closing in Hulkbuster choppers rain down in Hulk's direction. A nightmare unit of Red Hulks is waiting for Hulk on the forest edges of the lake. Hulk mutters, "Hulk always chased. Hulk hate Hulk history lessons!" He jumps at a Hulkbuster chopper, only to be blasted by a Red Hulk fireball and crash right through the exploding chopper.

He lands hard in the water below, with the lake being greatly leveled off on impact. The impact takes away the water and both Hulkbuster units with it, but also the surrounding forest area. With Bruce Banner's image to his left, Hulk sits up in sadness, "even as Avenger, Hulk lose."

Bruce highlights sarcastically, "why run when you can let haters destroy everything in their path?" Hulk's memories of fighting the Gamma powered Leader, of the Skrull version of Captain America that tricked him into being captured by fighter Ross, and of fighting Red Hulk across the edges of America before the Avengers came to help resurface in flashes.

In a great battle cry of anger, the Hulk rips out the lake's bottom to power punch Surtur's image underneath in exploding flames.

In those few physical minutes, on the streets of New York City…

With a mini-handheld Mandroid Battle Suit version of a Iron Man repulsor for such situations in her belt, Black Widow is welding Iron Man's chest plate shut to help him breathe more normally. Iron Man falls unconscious halfway through the process, but is still breathing.

Hawkeye in his fall shouts to Hulk, "anytime now would be nice!" He in a matter of seconds looks like he's going to smash into the ground, when Hulk bends out a undented part of a uncovered sewer pipe with his bare hands to send a blast of sewer water into Hawkeye.

Hawkeye coughs up some sewer water on the ground, but is not going unconsciousness. As he gets up, he mutters slightly sarcastic, "thanks a lot."

Hulk slightly chuckles, "Hulk good now. Red Helmet good now?"

Black Widow sighs slightly, "yes, Hulk: He will be all right too."

Meanwhile, on the top of a certain mountain in Vanaheim…

Surtur commander Baron Zemo is ready for Captain America's team, using one of his energy swords to fire three small fireballs for each of the Warriors Three's heads. They fall unconscious from the carefully timed stun blasts against what's left of the mountain slope.

Baron Zemo cruelly says, "if Winter Soldier wasn't left by you in H.Y.D.R.A.'s hands, what would he think?"

Captain America angrily charges for Surtur commander Baron Zemo, who is charging up both of his energy swords with Surtur flames. Captain America mutters in a calm but harsh manner, "Bucky knows better than to think I purposely left him…" He swing punches for Baron Zemo, only for Baron Zemo to deflect it with the flat side of one of his energy swords.

Captain America finishes his spoken thoughts as he clutches his hand, "with a evil man like you: Why did you even give in to Surtur anyway?!" He quickly jump tumbles to his Vibranium shield while barely dodging a super large fireball launched from both of Baron Zemo's energy swords.

Baron Zemo laughs darkly, "there should only be one realm to rule." Knowing ahead of time that Captain America would get through to him, he clinks his two energy blades together. Baron Zemo begins charging himself up to form a cosmic level fireball, in a swirl of blackish red light.

Captain America cries out no, using his main shield as cover while running at Baron Zemo. Knowing though it'd only last a few seconds against magic, Captain America hurls his exploding shield into Baron Zemo to make his cosmic level fireball go off early. An explosion follows, destroying the entire mountain in extreme heat.

Fortunately though, with Baron Zemo's cosmic level fireball intended for every realm but Midgard, a Surtur level mid-teleport made portal had just appeared where Baron Zemo used to be. Captain America had then quickly put out one hand to the portal and another to the combined fallen mass of the Warriors Three, giving them all a escape route to safety.

Meanwhile, in the skies of Alfheim…

Much to Vision and Black Panther's inner alarm, they see most of the entire perimeter worth of Surtur commander Ultrons around Alfheim's forests vanish. Even the group of Ultrons coming for Vision and Black Panther vanished. The two heroes have just realized that Surtur's real plan all along was to have Ultrons destroy the remaining realms for him, while his other Surtur commanders distracted the other Avenger teams.

Black Panther mutters harshly to himself, "should've planned for that one. Any suggestions, Vision?" He puts away the Wakanda diamond.

Vision considers, "if I phase into just one Ultron, there is a 70 percent probability of gaining access to the Ultron network."

Black Panther figures, "then let's increase those odds." From inside his Wakanda battle gear, he adjusts the frequencies of the inside of his battle gear's now horizontally positioned boots to repel instead of absorb surfaces and add momentum. In short, he speeds up Vision's speed by having his Wakanda battle gear's boots in a horizontal direction to push away from nearby trees instead of running up them.

Vision is fly charging at superfast speed unpredicted by the Ultrons, due to that not changing prior to their attack and the long distance between them and Vision. Vision adds, "I suggest you get off now." Black Panther nods as he tumbles off of Vision for the closest tree, letting Vision phase into one of the caught off guard Ultrons without worrying about Black Panther's safety.

In Ultron's programming…

Vision finds himself on a Earth without humans or any creation of humans prior to Ultron's creation by Hank. Instead, it is a bright red and silver Times Square themed world full of Ultrons. Countless overlapping human voices of answering machines sound off around Vision, making his programming on the edge of overloading in shaking android parts.

Ultron laughs through his own self images, "a program wanting to be more human: Nothing more than a human face."

Vision mutters calmly in a robot way, "if my program is…a failure for your program…then it is for my program a success." Ultron's world backfires in exploding electric billboards.

Physically, in seconds worth of computer processing time…

With Vision's android body in a phasing state for more than a few seconds, it destabilizes the Ultron network to the point of Nine Realms wide exploding due to not being prepared for such a result. As the Light Elves get buckets of water to help put out the forest fires, Black Panther is sitting on a tree branch waiting patiently for Vision. But Vision doesn't come out. Black Panther silently closes his eyes in respect for him.

Meanwhile, at Odin's kingdom in Asgard…

Asgardian fighters of varying looks and gender are scattered across the dark golden bridge to Odin's Asgardian fortress, all unconscious. The doors to Odin's kingdom were ripped off in Surtur flames. Beyond the doorway is Surtur against Balder and Odin, in Odin's throne room near the dark green Yggdrasil tree. Balder and Surtur's swords clink fiercely, while Odin is trying to get close enough to touch the Yiggdrasil tree as he planned.

Surtur mutters harshly, "you can't stop Ragnarok, Odin: Even if I destroy Yggdrasil to do it!" He with his words launches the two orbiting energy blades of the Twilight Sword like missiles, one at Odin and another at Yiggdrasil. Odin, caught off guard by this change in Surtur's plans, is coughing hard and falling unconscious on the throne room floor. The top half of the large Yggdrasil tree falls in Surtur flames, on top of Balder before he can see it coming.

Smoke and flames are now where he stood. Surtur is about to charge with the Twilight Sword into Odin, only for Heimdall to angrily uproot the rest of Yggdrasil as a hurled large club against Surtur.

Heimdall shouts, "none shall destroy the realms on my watch!" Like with overthrowing Loki, a new generation of Yggdrasil is beginning to be born. Surtur goes crash flying against the painted windows surrounding the newly and quickly forming Yggdrasil.

Despite his hard coughing, Surtur in rage is quickly starting to enlarge to full size to have the strength to destroy Odin's kingdom with his bare hands. He is now the size of an entire Asgardian hall, pulling himself to his feet with the kingdom walls as his support.

With Heimdall beginning to worry that Surtur's Ragnarok is indeed going to happen, Surtur is about to crush Odin's kingdom along with the new Yggdrasil by one extremely large hand. With Yggdrasil's destruction, the Nine Realms could very well smash into each other without Yggdrasil's branches keeping them separate. Then a bittersweet miracle comes.

Wonder Man in the form of a purple fireball smashes right into Surtur, using the last of his Surtur commander enhanced powers to destroy Surtur. A super large explosion follows, covering all of the Nine Realms in brilliant white light of uncertainty and hope.


	4. Act IV: For Better Or Worse?

Spirits And Flames: A Avengers Fanfiction Story

Act IV:

Across the Nine Realms…

As quickly as the white light came, it stopped. The fallen fighters and Fire Demons are gone, but everyone else is mostly all right now.

Without Surtur, the Demon realm Muspelheim is gone.

Odin's throne room in Asgard is no longer in flames, with Odin being in his orange golden Odinsleep chamber to start regaining his strength from his battle with Surtur. The Yggdrasil tree is at full growth again.

Alfheim's forests are alive and thriving again, without Surtur flames. The skies are clear of Surtur commander Ultrons.

The mountain in Vanaheim that was destroyed by Baron Zemo's cosmic level fireball is back up.

The destruction on Midgard seems to no longer be ruins from a late night airplane overlooking the skies. But sometimes, something can't be known just at face value.

Niffleheim, though shaken, is intact. All the soul crystals that were around Hela are back to floating around her rock pedestal.

Jotunheim's water world state has been turned back to a timeless winter land of ice and snow. And the returning cold breezes still circle around Jotunheim's becoming stormy skies.

The walls of flames across Swartalfheim have vanished. The leafless trees are as close to being restored, as they were before Surtur came.

Nidavellirr including The Forge is back up, for the Dwarves and their magically enhanced gear making business with Asgardians.

In a certain city among the mortals of Midgard…

Through Asgardian portals from Mjolnir in Thor's hands, most of the central Avengers arrive to find the Avengers Mansion gone without a trace. Yet under the circumstances of Surtur's attack across realms, it may not be far off. Strangely though, everywhere else among New York City's buildings seems very much intact.

In their shaken feelings over Surtur's cosmic level destruction and what they had to do to stop him from destroying the Nine Realms as they know it, they don't think much of the strangeness around where their own headquarters was and are quite silent. Black Panther breaks the silence, "and where's Iron Man?"

Hawkeye slightly chuckles, "Red Helmet is being fixe... What?!" He has the present Avengers glaring at him, except for Black Widow who can't help but slightly be innerly amused by it.

A few hours later into the fading away night, on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier's cockpit…

Acting S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill for the next few hours is standing in the shadows, on the already landed and being unused Helicarrier due to how late it is. The only source of light is a light blue S.H.I.E.L.D. control screen readout, which Maria Hill is looking at. She mutters to herself, "damn signal…!" She hears footsteps behind her, to discover it is Nick Fury with a laser pistol. To Maria Hill's shock, he is aiming it at her.

She inquires harshly, "have you lost your mind?!"

Nick Fury reveals coldly, "actually, far from it: While I informed you I was coming back to S.H.I.E.L.D. after Skrull clean up, I downloaded a copy of your reports to check on if you weren't compromised yourself."

Maria Hill argues, "but I'm no Skrull, Fury!"

Nick Fury reflects, "then perhaps you can tell me what is worse: Using the Cosmic Cube in a sad attempt to erase the Avengers from existence, or using your connections with the president so you can make secret rules for superheroes?!"

Realizing that there is no use pretending to not know anymore, Maria Hill sighs hard, "then I'm sorry that you'll be erased." She on her last word puts her hands on the edges of the readout screen to midair flip kick Nick Fury against the floor hard. Then as Nick Fury goes down with a groan, a hard swing takes out Maria Hill by surprise. She lands hard against cracked glass within the Helicarrier's dome arranged windows.

Nick Fury slightly chuckles, knowing who helped him out. A back to consciousness Mockingbird in the shadows keeps her bo staff in one hand over her shoulder, letting her help Nick Fury to his feet. He thanks her.

Mockingbird slightly sighs, "too bad she decided to be all cosmic level crazy."

Nick Fury sighs hard, "tell me about it. Has Black Widow gotten the president to resign?"

Mockingbird answers with a slight chuckle, "Fury, she's Black Widow: Why couldn't she?"

Nick Fury checks, "and the Cosmic Cube?"

Mockingbird reveals, "already on its way to Odin's museum of untouchable junk."

Nick Fury concludes, "good. Let's go." In a few minutes, she and Mockingbird together start carrying a fallen Maria Hill out of S.H.I.E.L.D. for good. The screen readout that Maria Hill was looking at has timed out, leaving the Helicarrier in darkness.

Meanwhile, among dark green soul crystals…

Valkyrie awakes in a soul crystal, floating around Niffleheim's rock pedestal. It has Hela's silvery marble chair at center. Resting on Hela's chair is a very unusual book titled Niffleheim Pool. The book's center cover pictures widely varying versions of Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Black Widow in small swirls blended with lots of other small superhero swirls.

At the upper left is a dark red outlined circle with half of a mostly black spotted red masked face, half of Hela's black masked face, and a diagonal dark red line through the circle's center. Across the bottom are the words, "by Wade Wilson and H. Soul." Swirled around the superhero swirls is the odd phrase, "get tickets for the one you think won't come back!"

Realizing that her Asgardian sword is not on her person, Valkyrie struggles to get out with her fists. But to her great frustration, she ends up realizing she can't get out that way. A back to normal Hela appears beside Valkyrie. Instead of her cursed cloak, Hela wears a solid black cloak. Valkyrie very angry highlights, "I'm usually not one to talk, but why?!"

Hela slightly laughs, "you already know by now. These crystals help focus my illusions among countless souls, but one crystal can help a consciousness focus long enough to keep itself between realms. It's how I could restore myself this quickly."

Valkyrie insists, "yes, but why?"

Hela sighs hard, "as you can see from here, I need to recover many souls…despite there still being countless souls. You and several other fighter women very similar to yourself have been chosen to bring them back...as the Valkyrior. Without a good number of souls in my kingdom, it won't be long before souls in the other realms fade away by the hundreds."

Valkyrie realizes, "Surtur destroyed me…but you're offering me to be a Asgardian again to bring honor to your lost souls."

Hela remarks, "for one who shall say few words, you're smarter than I thought. Does that mean…?"

With no intention of being trapped in a crystal by a very tricky Hela, Valkyrie concludes harshly, "yes, I shall: But only for honor."

Hela slightly laughs, "yes, I thought you would. But if it's any comfort to you, it shall mean more than that: The Valkyrior shall be my guard against rebellious souls, separating the honorable from the honorless."

Valkyrie comments harshly, "yeah, you keep telling yourself that."

She turns her back to Hela, who just scoffs and teleports away.

In the coming early morning…

Hawkeye is sitting on the steps to a interestingly restored Avengers Mansion. Thanks to Asgardians Sif and Heimdall, the Cosmic Cube's power was responsible for that restoration as a thank you for the Avengers before it was put away in Odin's kingdom. Black Widow is on her way back to the mansion, when she realizes Hawkeye has been waiting for her.

Black Widow sighs hard, "can we not do this now, Clint?"

Hawkeye gets up in recollection, "last time I checked, you're no longer looking for Fury or pretending to be a H.Y.D.R.A. agent. What's the excuse now?"

Black Widow highlights, "not everyone is as collected in thoughts as you, but I thought you could at least respect that."

Hawkeye slightly chuckles, "oh, the Hulk and Yellowjacket will come back more collected than ever. We all will…sigh…given enough time. But when can we ever have enough time for us, if we never use it?"

Black Widow slightly sighs, "you may be onto something there."

Hawkeye wonders, "when have I ever not been onto something?"

Black Widow says with a slight chuckle, "do you really want an answer to that?"

Hawkeye figures, "no." They kiss each other warmly, in the midst of the dawn of a new day.

Underground, among a certain unusual storage room's technology…

Dark gray and black circular walls lit with basketball sized blue lights surround several thin metal stand, which surrounds a light blue silvery familiar android body with a pair of straight downward horns. The android body is Jocasta's, prepared by Ultron some time ago to transfer Wasp's consciousness into for his idea of perfection before Ultron's base overloaded from above.

Interestingly, Jocasta's android body awakens with bright red eyes, but in a man's voice. The familiar voice says, "program download…90 percent complete. Program restoration…85 percent complete." The voice is Vision's. But in Jocasta's android head's eyes come some brief flashes of Ultron programming, before becoming solid bright red again.

**The End Of Another Chapter For Earth's Mightiest Heroes…Or The Start Of Spin Off Fanfiction?**

**Please Feel Free To Comment On Or Continue This Storyline**


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